Historical perspective of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election on the 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

It’s been 75 years since the United States entered World War II.  Spurred into action after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the men and women who made up what would become known as the ‘greatest generation’ defied the odds that favored fascism over freedom and peace.  Today, only 10% of the men who took on Hitler and the other fascist leaders of the Axis Powers still live.  I've been thinking a lot about their generation since learning Donald Trump would be our nation's 45^th president. I’ve taken time to consider what my grandparents, who came from that generation, would have made of such a man; a man known to ‘say it as it is’ with little thought or care for the potential impact of his actions or words; a man prone to boisterous claims and empty promises.  In his own quest for power, Trump took political advantage of a beleaguered faction of the populace, promising easy solutions to complex issues.  In contemplating what the WWII generation would have thought of Trump had he run for president then instead of now, I come back to the thought that the men and women who came of age during that period saw several demagogues enter the world stage.  

From the blood and ashes of WWI rose Spain’s Francisco Franco, Japan’s Hideki Tojo, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler.  Like Trump, they spoke to the disenfranchised, the angry, and the malcontent to whip up a messiah-like devotion from their followers.  As a student of history, I watched in utter disbelief as Donald Trump, a present day ‘rabble rouser’ known for insult and vitriol, rose within a breath away from holding the highest political office of a country that became the world’s premiere power following WWII. I look back on history for answers, and while I find those answers in the past, there’s little reassurance that things will work out well for the world when we fail to heed the lessons of that past.

While we give justified praise to the men and women who took on the fascist dictatorships that threatened to darken the world during WWII, it’s worth noting that, as a whole, they were only able to attain their greatness under the steady, brave leadership of men like Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It was Churchill in particular who spoke out against the threat that was Hitler, showing an uncanny understanding of the danger Hitler posed to civilization. History has rightly sided with the Anglo-American coalition that fought against totalitarianism, but to truly gain insight, we’d need to compare the Allied populace and leaders to those of whom they fought against. We also need to consider that even 'good' men like FDR were not infallible; they, too, were capable of falling prey to the ignorance and hate of their times.  Let us not forget that it was President Roosevelt who approved the rounding up of a whole race, interring all Japanese-Americans for the duration of the war with no reason except for the discrimination of their race.  This ill-advised executive decision rightly besmirches FDR’s otherwise intact presidential reputation.   In a greater sense, to fully understand the ‘greatest generation’ that saved civilization from tyranny, we’d need to also consider those of their generation they fought against.  

As the 1930’s made way for a new decade, Adolf Hitler was at the precipice of world domination.  He and his fascist friends had reached that point by having taken advantage of the economic depression and moral degradation that the First World War and subsequent treaty had inflicted upon Germany.  To achieve their aim, they carefully chose to scapegoat an entire race for the troubles they had endured since their defeat at the end of the First World War. They began to slowly seep the public’s collective consciousness in misinformation and lies in their effort to sway public opinion their way.  They offered over-simplified and ill-conceived solutions to the weighty economic issues that had befallen the German people as a result of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles.  While there were decent Germans who stood against Hitler, the finely-tuned, manipulative, armored Nazi machine allowed Hitler to quickly and forcibly remove any and all political threats that stood between him and ultimate power.  Once that power was achieved, a war-weary world continued to vacillate and waiver.  Great Britain’s Neville Chamberlain will forever be infamously tied to the claim that he had achieved ‘peace for our time’ after meeting with Hitler.  He had allowed his naiveté to cloud his better judgment. The choice Chamberlain and the world made to ignore the risk Hitler posed would eventually lead to over 60 million people being killed between the war years of 1939-1945. Chamberlain and others like him chose to give credence to Hitler’s false promises; placing undue reliance on his word for the sake of blind belief that the world could not possibly return to the blood of the previous World War.  They chose willful ignorance, refusing to contemplate the consequences of their own actions (or, in this case, in-actions).  They rationalized and failed to see how they would be justifiably judged by future generations.  Part of what could be gleaned from the years immediately preceding the Second World War is the hazard of placing faith in a demagogue who arrives on the world’s stage willing to demonize factions of society while promising to correct the ills of the world single-handedly.  As countries minimized Hitler’s words and actions, Winston Churchill alone warned of the dangers of ignoring the threat Hitler posed and the risk it meant to civilization; and, still, the world abandoned reason, minimized the peril, belittled Churchill’s warnings as overblown and exaggerated, and gave free reign to Hitler’s rise.  When contemplating the weight and extent of what freedom-loving people of that generation needed to overcome to earn the title of the ‘greatest’, we must consider that before they had to endure the trials and tribulations that Hitler set into motion, they had to suffer through the appeasement of the less forward-minded members of their generation; those who were willing to ignore, condone, or make excuses for Hitler’s actions.

History informs that there will always be narcissistic leaders who wish to impose their will upon the world with the intention of rending silent the decency and peace in which people wish to live.  Their will is driven by their whims and for the sole purpose of satisfying their personal lust for power and control.  Too often, history has proven that when we follow such leaders, we not only fail to heed history’s lessons, we are doomed to repeat the past.  Totalitarian leaders enforce complete adherence to what they desire. They bristle at any form of criticism, demanding utter acquiesce to their ideas.  Balancing decisive leadership, cooperation, and diplomacy is not a part of their repertoire.  Freedom of speech and public dissent are squashed.  Truth is deemed only accessible through the mouth and ideas of the leader.  Information is manipulated and warped to such a degree that truth is no longer recognizable.   History does not look kindly on dictator-like personalities when they are placed in positions of power.  Their insatiable egos and need for power quickly overcome any semblance of reason in times of great decision. 

During the election process, Donald Trump’s detractors claimed their uneasiness regarding his temperament, and wondered if it was conducive to the job for which he sought.  They described their fear over his racist, xenophobic talk. Students of history have gone so far as to compare Trump to the likes of Hitler.  Conversely, those who voted for Trump have claimed indignation at their candidate (now President-elect) being compared to the notoriously evil Hitler.  They become angry at the thoughts of being compared to those who supported Hitler in his own rise to power.  No matter the degree or relevancy of such a comparison (to which history supports), those who voted for Trump must bear some responsibility and ownership, no matter how much or little they choose to accept.  By Donald Trump’s own admission, through his own recorded words and deeds, there is a blatant disregard for decency and truth that we would be remiss to ignore.  To ignore the relevance of history is for us to be as morally culpable as those who turned a blind eye on the fascist past that almost destroyed civilized humanity in the mid-twentieth century.  My hope is that we, the present generation, will hold the new President-elect to the standards that are allowed by democracy; to use our voices to rail against any outright injustice or act of degradation and  immorality that is beneath the office he will soon hold.  To fail at this task would be to be just as guilty as those who ignored the egregious actions that led the world to near cataclysmic depths during the reign of death and destruction of the Second World War. 

On this, the 75th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor, in honor of those who risked everything to fight against the fascist bonds of totalitarianism, we need to ensure that we learn from the lessons of that time. We must continue to hold our new President-elect accountable for his decisions. By understanding our history, we hope to prevent him and the world from taking regressive steps; steps that would only serve to harken back to the dark period in history that was the Second World War.  We owe it to those who lived and fought through that war that much.  We owe it to ourselves and future generations to ensure that what they fought for and achieved will not be lost.  In doing this, we will have paid them the due diligence their sacrifice deserves.